1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technology for selecting a vehicle (preceding vehicle) that is traveling ahead of an own vehicle.
2. Related Art
As a technology for reducing operating load placed on a driver who is driving a vehicle, an inter-vehicle control apparatus is known. The inter-vehicle control apparatus detects a vehicle (preceding vehicle) that is traveling ahead of the own vehicle. The inter-vehicle control apparatus controls the vehicle speed and the like to maintain a certain distance between the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle, enabling the own vehicle to automatically track the preceding vehicle.
In this type of apparatus, a radar or the like is used to detect objects that are present ahead of the own vehicle. The preceding vehicle that should be tracked by the own vehicle is selected from among the detected objects. In addition, to enable selection of the preceding vehicle to be determined at an early stage, a predicted lateral position is calculated from a lateral movement speed of the object present ahead of the own vehicle. The predicted lateral position is also used to select the preceding vehicle (for example, refer to JP-B-4229189). The predicted lateral position information can also be considered position information in which the lateral position is corrected based on the lateral movement speed.
The lateral position information detected using a radar or the like is determined based on the position at which the radar wave is reflected. Therefore, the lateral position information does not accurately indicate a specific position (such as the center of a vehicle). As a result of the effect of the lateral position information, the predicted lateral position information also varies. In addition, an estimated path on which the own vehicle travels has significant error over long distances and on curved roads. Therefore, when the predicted lateral position information is used to select and cancel a preceding vehicle, a problem occurs in that erroneous selection easily occurs.